Just This One Time
by I-Live-Outside-The-Box
Summary: "I couldn't save her. I didn't deserve to get out of these games alive." Thresh's POV throughout the Hunger Games. R&R please!
1. Let The 74th Hunger Games Begin!

**This is a story I've been meaning to write for the past month. I promised dominoKEI I would write her a Thresh Fanfic, but had no idea what I was going to do. It was this or one about Leper from A Separate Peace. It's just going to be extremely short snippets of Thresh while he's in the arena.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own. You know what I mean.**

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I can feel myself rising up, pushing me into what might be the last place I'll ever see. When I reach the surface, I'm blinded by the bright sunlight. I feel a cool breeze on my face, and when my eyes adjust, I see a forest. Then I see a lake. I look behind me and see that down a slope is a huge field. The grass is a mixture of different colors and I automatically know that there's a goldmine of different kinds of grain. Only two people in this arena would know what's safe to eat. And I have a feeling that Rue's going to stick to the trees.

I look at the different weapons and supplies around the Cornucopia and my eyes rest on a sickle. I was one of the people back in District 11 that would harvest the many types of grains we grew. Work back home seems to be helping me more than just physically. A little to the left of the sickle is a bag. The more supplies, the better.

The gong sounds and without thinking I rush to the Cornucopia. Expecting a fight, I brace myself for an attack. Nothing comes my way as I grab the sickle and bag. It's easy to see that everybody is giving me a wide berth. I sprint in the direction of the field and before I go down, I look back at the bloodbath. I see no sign of Rue, which proves that she's already in the trees, safer than everybody else is at the moment. I also see the girl from District 12, pulling a knife out of her backpack and heading to the woods. Liking my choice of the field more and more, I jog into it, immediately surrounded by grasses that go up to my chest. I spot wheat, barley, millet, and so much more after just a few minutes of walking through the field. I have more food at the moment then I've had in years.

"_Yes," _I think. _"Let the seventy-fourth Hunger Games begin. Because I'm ready."_

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**I promise things will build up as the Games go along. I just wanted to get a start on it. I think Thresh was a little OOC myself, but he's hard to write. Maybe that's why Suzanne Collins didn't write him in as much... Tell me what you think about it, and I'll try and get the next chapter up soon.**


	2. More Like A Vacation

**I feel bad for not updating sooner. Anyway, on with the story!**

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It's been a few days in the arena, and so far, I haven't had any trouble. The Hunger Games seem more like a vacation than a fight to the death. Right now, I have plenty of food, shelter, and I don't have to do any backbreaking labor for almost nothing in return. If I hadn't been reaped a few weeks earlier, I would barely have enough food to get by, a leaky shack, and of course, the backbreaking labor. I was starting to worry. Something was going to happen, and I wanted to be in control of it.

I was planning a little night trip as I was preparing some grains for an overnight soak. Just eating them raw can cause some pretty painful nights, but an overnight soaking fixes that (among other things) right up. I don't want to start a fire, being so close to the Careers' camp, so that basically left me with one option. Raw grains. I'm going to need something besides that and water from a nearby stream, which is one of the reasons I'm making this trip. Also, I've been in one place for a long time, and I'm pushing my luck. After 18 years of watching the Hunger Games, I knew an immobile tribute was a dead tribute. I popped some already soaked oats into my mouth and thought.

I knew the Careers' schedule because I've listened in on them quite a bit in the last few days. I'll probably head into the woods after they do, and come back here quickly. I heard that they're going to go hunting for that girl from District 12, the one everybody calls, "The Girl On Fire," tonight. My guess is that they'll be deep in the woods searching, which means I'll stay closer to the outer rim. Maybe a quick recon of the surrounding area, just in case something happens to the field.

The main reason I'm deciding to do this is because I need protein, and I haven't found any quinoa or amaranth plants around here, which contain lots of protein. Everybody knows you can't just live off of grains. Saying that I live long enough t-

I can't think like that. Then I'm guaranteed to not make it out of here alive. To never see my grandmother and sister again. To never again...

I shake my head to clear it of all of the invading thoughts of my death and try to go right back to planning. I also want to see how Rue is faring in the arena. Every night I look in the sky, hoping to not see her small face among the stars, and every night so far, she's managed to evade death in this arena. Which means every night I go to sleep happy.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I need sleep. I've been running out of energy a lot lately, which shows that my lack of protein is catching up to me. I'll finish packing up some stuff and then I'll take a quick nap before tonight. I'll need my rest.

I wake up sometime in late afternoon. I stand up to stretch, but stop short. Smoke, so much smoke is filling the sky. I quickly see that only a section of the woods is burning. I grab my pack, taking control of this wonderful opportunity to explore the safer part of the woods. I have no doubt that this fire was caused by Gamemakers, which means that it will stay in the section of the woods it's in. I also have no doubt that the Careers' and a few other tributes are stuck in that forest fire. I only hope that Rue isn't there, too. I don't want to see her face in the sky tonight.

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**Sorry for making you wait so long for this chapter, but I had no inspiration. I've also been a bit busy. Sorry if you thought this chapter was a bit slow, but I promise it'll get better! Please review, the more you guys do, the faster I'll update! You know where the button is! If you review, I'll give you a virtual cupcake! I will too. If you don't believe me, then review anyway and see what happens.**


	3. Fiery Memories

**I'm sorry I haven't updated sooner (again). But now that I got my wisdom teeth out, I have time. I also have chipmunk cheeks! XD Enjoy! **_Flashbacks are in italics._

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I try and keep the fire at my back. It's not really that hard, all I have to do is look for the giant mass of smoke and walk away from it. Something about that fire makes my heart ache. I can't figure out why until I pull out some grains from my pack. I've tried to forget about what happened that day, but when you loose people you love, you can never forget.

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_My dad was showing me how to harvest wheat. Even though the sun was beating down on us and we barely had enough water, I was glad to spend time with him. Before today, I hadn't been old enough to work in the fields. The younger kids had to work in the orchards, where it wasn't as hot, and where smaller and lighter bodies could be used to scramble up trees. But since my tenth birthday, I've been moved to work in the field with my dad. I almost never saw him, since he had to leave early and come home late. But, when I did see him, he was always ready to play with my sister and me, to help us with our problems, and to tell a joke or two. Now I had some one on one time with him._

_ Ever since my mom died, I've been seeing less and less of my dad, and I barely saw him to begin with. He had to work more to support two kids and his mother, who was too old to work. She kept telling him that he was slowly killing himself and every time his reply was, "Working to keep my family alive is not killing me. It's making me stronger."_

_ I had a hard time believing him sometimes. My dad was a big man, almost seven feet tall, and all muscle. You would think that nothing could wear him down. But the amount of labor he'd been doing started to show. He had bags under his eyes and his hands would shake uncontrollably. It can be scary to see your father unravel before your eyes. Ever since my older sister was old enough to work and be paid (if you were younger than 10, you couldn't be paid), we convinced our dad to work less and rest more. Now that I had reached that age, we could spend more time together as a family._

_ "Ok, Thresh, now it's your turn. Remember how you hold the sickle. There you go, now-" My __dad stopped short. He stood up straight and froze._

_ "What is it? Dad, what is it?" I was scared, seeing the look on my dad's face, and not being tall enough to see over the wheat. "DAD!"_

_ He gets down on his knees, puts his hands on his shoulders, and look me in the eye. "Thresh, run home. If you see anybody, tell them to get home as fast as they can, but don't you dare stop running. Do you remember the way?"_

_ "Yes, but-"_

_ "Good, now go."_

_ "But-"_

_ "No buts. Go."_

_ I didn't want to go anywhere, but the tone in my dad's voice told me that I better listen to him. But I couldn't leave like this. I reached out and hugged him as long and as hard as I could. My arms could barely go around his body._

_ "I love you Dad," I whispered, holding back tears. Somehow I knew this was the last time we would see each other._

_ "I love you too Thresh." He broke the hug and I could've sworn I saw tears running down his face. "I believe I told you to do something." I nodded and turned on my heels and ran._

_ Only later that day did I learn that a fire had consumed over half of our fields and about 450 men and women. My dad had been one of them. We were told that if it wasn't for him, many more would have lost their lives. But that didn't make me feel any better._

_ We didn't even have a funeral. Not for him, not for anybody else. It was harvest season, and there was no time to mourn. At least, that's what the Capitol told us._

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The memory brought tears to my eyes, but I quickly wiped them away. Seeing a tribute as big as me cry for some unknown reason will scare away sponsors. I keep walking, but can't get rid of the ache in my heart.

I find some snares with some squirrels and rabbits. I take them and put them in my bag. I want to get back to my camp quickly, so I can skin and gut the animals before the meat gets too bad. And it looks like the fire has stopped, which means that soon I'm going to run into somebody. I'd rather stay hidden and not kill anybody unless absolutely necessary. But this is the Hunger Games, and killing is guaranteed.

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**Tell me what you thought about it and this time I'll give you a virtual pie! Or you can give me medicine for my chipmunk cheeks! They hurt! How about, after five reviews, I'll update?**


	4. His Promise

**Ok, so I really felt like updating. Enjoy! **_Flashbacks!_

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So much had happened the past few days. The Careers had lost the girl from District 1, Glimmer, I think her name was. The best thing that had happened was that the girl from District 12 blew up their supplies. I was reminiscing in this memory when the anthem played. Two people had died today. I think one of them was the Careers. Sure enough, the other tribute from District 1 was in the sky tonight. I had no clue who the other was. Whoever else had passed had done it right after. I see who it is and I freeze. It's Rue. Which means I broke my promise to Sabre. His dying wish.

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_"He's tired. Don't get him worked up. You have five minutes with him." The nurse looked at me like she was expecting me to do something._

_ "I won't." Then I walked the room that held my one friend. He looked smaller than normal in the hospital room. There was nothing fancy about it, we can't afford things like that in District 11. Sabre was my partner when we worked in the fields. He had dark skin and eyes like most people in District 11. He was very small for his age. He was 15, just like me. "How do you feel?"_

_ "Horrible. You don't look too good yourself."_

_ "I thought you were dead! You were for a while!"_

_ "Really? Interesting." He trailed off, lost in thought. "Listen, Thresh, I want to tell you something. There's a small chance that I'm going to be here much lon-"_

_ I cut him off. "No. You'll be fine."_

_ "I will not Thresh. I can feel myself dying. So I have to tell you something before my family gets here."_

_ I decided to humor him. I didn't want to get kicked out because I got him 'worked up.' "What is it?"_

_ "You know my little sister, Rue?"_

_ "Yeah, why?" I didn't see where this was going._

_ "She's too young to take on the responsibilities I had. I want her to stay young as long as she can. When I go, she'll be in charge of our younger siblings while Mom and Dad work during the night. Then she'll have to start working harder jobs just so we can have enough money to eat another day. She's too young to handle that, Thresh. Please help her. Please."_

_ He wasn't asking me. He knew I'd say yes. I just don't know how I could help her. "Ok Sabre. I'll do it."_

_ He seemed to relax when he heard my answer. He laid back on his pillow and closed his eyes. "Thank you Thresh."_

_ "Just don't expect me to tell them."_

_ He smiled at that. "Oh, don't worry. I don't."_

_ The nurse came in and said, "Your time is up. You can go now." She genuinely looked surprised that her patient was still alive and peacefully talking to somebody that looked like me._

_ "Goodbye Thresh. You are a great friend." Those were his last words to me._

_ To him I said, "So are you." He died later that night. The doctors said his body was too small to live after getting hit by the lightning strike. I know what really killed him. The amount of work and stress he endured making sure his little brothers and sister stayed young. He didn't want Rue to end up the same way. I was going to make sure that she wouldn't have the same ending as her brother, my friend. Sabre._

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I couldn't save her. I don't deserve to get out of these games alive.

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**This was sort of a downer... Just a head's up, the next chapter will be written by dominoKEI herself. Something to look forward to! Now, REVIEW!**


	5. Not Even

**This chapter was written by dominKEI. I convinced her to write something for HER story.**

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It was once again evening, and the cannon banged some more faces into the sky. I passively viewed the pictures of other tributes, knowing that if I looked too intently, I might have seen a face I recognized. Recognition of my enemies led to compassion for them, and I knew that feeling is not one I could spare. The days remaining in the games were growing shorter, and somebody, everybody must die. I would've said I didn't want it to be me, but that may have been a lie. If I died, it meant that one other tribute lived. That was all I wanted. For someone else to live. I didn't kill people, I hulled wheat! I may have been a hulking man-child, and people feared me often enough, but I just didn't think I could do it. Thinking of that brought back a memory of home I had fought to repress.

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_"Thresh! Please, boy, save me! Don't let him hurt my granddaughter!" Mrs. Mericomb screamed in agony as a man snapped her fingers, one by one. I didn't know Mrs. Mericomb well, and her granddaughter, Sinthe, was her only family. Sinthe was two years below me in our prep school; I saw her occasionally. I did know the man who was brutally torturing her, though. It was Wreck, my father's friend. They had worked in the fields together for years. I couldn't believe it. For a short while, even I had worked with him alongside my dad. Wreck's family even came over to our house sometimes for dinner, and us theirs. He had recently gone into such debt that he and his wife and three kids were living in the fields, secretly._

_ Wreck had begged everyone in the entire barley faction for any scraps, and cloth, thread, _anything_. My dad said that if it were possible, he would have asked for the houses over our heads, but that was illegal. He also said that if we would have been able to, he would have given him our house. I shook myself out of that memory, and looked again at Wreck, trying to murder an old lady for money._

_ "Enough!" I roared, and Wreck spun, flinging the woman to the ground. I jumped at him, ripping the scythe from its sheath at his pocket. The scythe was beautiful, engraved by a master._

_ I remembered that in District 11, your scythe was your greatest possession. Often, families passed them down the line. Sometimes, they were used in the field, other times they were displayed, the only valuable thing that a household had to be proud of. The Mericomb family crest adorned the handle, and it was then that I knew what I had to do._

_ I wrestled Wreck to the ground, using my incredible strength to slam him into the dirt. He fought back violently, and after years of being a farmer, he was considerably more skilled than I was. Eventually, I began to get tired, and I smashed the scythe into his neck. He thrashed once, twice, and then grew still._

_ Mrs. Mericomb trembled on the ground a ways away. I glanced at her, then her family's scythe. I yanked on it once, removing it from his neck, and snapped it in half. I then vowed that would be the last time I would ever use my strength to hurt things. Ever._

_ They found her on the outskirts of the fields the next morning. Upon taking her back home, she could not recount the details of the night. Her left hand would be completely useless for the rest of her life._

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Never again would I let that happen to anyone. Not even as I heard the approaching footsteps of a telltale young girl running through the woods for an orange bag with the number 12 on it. Not even when I saw her being pinned down by the vicious tribute with a knife to her throat. Not even.

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**I think dominoKEI did a good job with this. If you review, I'll PM her. :)**


	6. I'm Ready

The freezing rain slithered down my spine, forcing me to remain conscious. I thought I have felt pain before, but this was something new. Every waking moment was filled with the terror and reminder of my oncoming death. I had run out of hope days ago.

Only fifteen days in the arena had broken me down to the point of complete exhaustion and hopelessness. Only fifteen days and I had seen the most inhumane deaths, and I participated in one of them. If by some miracle I do survive this nightmare, the guilt will always follow me. I had come into these games swearing that I would not kill, but protect. I had failed both.

Only the instinct to survive has kept me going. My last wish in this world is to not die by Cato's hands, or the Gamemakers. I'm leaving on my own terms.

I'm positive that Cato is looking for me, but he will never find me alive. Even his anger won't overcome his fear of the field that has become my home for these past two weeks. And anybody in there right mind wouldn't go back to the place where everybody knows you're at. But I'm no longer in my right mind and because of this, I have the upper hand.

The rain jolts me back to reality and out of my dark thoughts. I'm starting to scare myself and that's saying a lot considering I've survived the Hunger Games up to now. I'm ready for this to be over.

I stand up slowly and I can feel my joints creak. I haven't moved from my spot ever since the rain started. Walking proves difficult and about three steps into my journey, I loose my shoe in the mud. That's okay with me, it'll make my job easier. I don't bring anything with me, I don't want to be tempted to defend myself if needed. That would only provide an exciting show for the Gamemakers and the Capitol.

I don't know how long I hobbled on, going around in circles, but before long, I came upon what I had been looking for. Before I approached it, I decided to speak.

"Dad, Sabre, Rue, wherever you are, please forgive me. If everything goes as planned, we'll see each other soon." It was short and simple, but every word I uttered rang with all of the emotions I had been hiding and pushing down for years. But I didn't have time to get emotional because if any of the Gamemakers heard me (which they probably had) then they knew what I was going to do and would do anything to try to stop me, anything to put on a show.

I walked slowly over to the snake, a definite mutation made by the Capitol. It was long, about six feet from tip to tip, and was a strange red color. Down its back were thirteen white circles and on the top of its head, a yellow star. Definitely a mutt.

I crept closer to the snake, remembering the first time I had seen it. I was searching for other types of grain in the field when I heard a rattling noise. Not knowing what it was, I stopped, my scythe raised high. After a few minutes that rattling had stopped and I resumed my search. I hadn't even taken two steps when I heard the rattling noise again. To my left I saw the wheat shift as if something was slithering through them. This strange looking snake came into sight and I immediately knew that it was poisonous. I ran.

The familiar rattle met my ears and I knew there was no turning back. I stuck out my right foot because that was the foot that had no shoe. The rattling didn't cease. If anything, it got louder. Once again, the rain pulled me back to reality, reminding me of who I am and what I was doing. That's when I realized, I was at peace with my decision. The snake lashed out at me and I fell.

The pain washed over my body, as cold and harsh as the rain that was turning the ground beneath me to mud. This was how I was going to win, by dying how I chose to. I laid there, in the middle of a field that was in the middle of an arena. I could feel my life slowly leaving me and before the last wisp of life left me, I thought, _"I'm ready."_

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**I have to apologize for making you all wait for months on end for this chapter. Please, if you are reading this, tell me what you thought, anything. And, because nobody reads people's profiles, I have an Instagram and its i_live_outside_the_box. What a shocker, I know. I just want to thank all of you for your support throughout this story. And thank dominoKEI for wanting this story written, I really enjoyed it.**

**~I-Live-Outside-The-Box~**


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